In part 1 of this series I introduced the "Signs and Wonders" ministry of Bethel church-chain supremo Bill Johnson. Originally this post was intended to look at an interview with Bill Johnson found in the January 2015 edition of Premier Christianity. I have, however, since discovered the video above and will be discussing this instead. I will look at the Christianity article in part 3. The above video gives us an example of one of Bethel Church's signs and wonders, the so called glory cloud.
The video is a critique of the glory cloud phenomenon and Bethel's accompanying apologetics. This critique comes from a Christian who probably classifies as a "Word" Christian; that is, someone whose main engagement with Christianity is mediated by reading the Bible. I have to agree with him that the glory cloud is rather underwhelming and hardly leaves me in a state of great wonder. As the video suggests it looks suspiciously like dust (or glitter) catching the light as it is caught up in the circulating convention currents one might expect in a crowded auditorium and which is necessarily air conditioned in the hot Californian weather.
So, you have difficulty believing this "glory cloud" is anything special? Well, Bethel has ways of making you believe....
The video is a critique of the glory cloud phenomenon and Bethel's accompanying apologetics. This critique comes from a Christian who probably classifies as a "Word" Christian; that is, someone whose main engagement with Christianity is mediated by reading the Bible. I have to agree with him that the glory cloud is rather underwhelming and hardly leaves me in a state of great wonder. As the video suggests it looks suspiciously like dust (or glitter) catching the light as it is caught up in the circulating convention currents one might expect in a crowded auditorium and which is necessarily air conditioned in the hot Californian weather.
So, you have difficulty believing this "glory cloud" is anything special? Well, Bethel has ways of making you believe....
The video then goes on to provide clips of Bethel's glory cloud apologist Danny Silk. In front of a supportive laughing crowd he ridicules any who might attempt to question the Bethel interpretation and look for explanations in anything less than supernatural terms. He advises disobedient people to "Shut up! You don't know, you so don't know!".
The video rightly points to the psychological pressures, to the point of duress, being applied in the Bethel social environment: e.g. the peer pressures of group think, the emotional costs in contracting out once a commitment to the Bethel culture has been made and above all the guru status of authority figures like Bill Johnson who preside over the glory cloud meetings and interpret its meaning to his followers. The video also points out the glaring hypocrisy of Silk: Silk will tell critics that "You so don't know" but of course Silk thinks that he himself "So does know!"; one rule for him..... Silk then goes onto lecture the audience on the need for discernment and yet his words make it clear that he wants to close down the questioning and analytical attitude that is necessarily implicit in any genuine discernment. He attempts to block genuine discernment with a mix of group pressure, ridicule and spiritual intimidation. For Silk genuine discernment equates to the subtext of Silk's address; that is "Agree with me or else risk divine displeasure!"
The video then moves onto the night Bill Johnson was addressing his followers when the glory cloud appeared. Johnson explains the glory cloud as follows:
The church gathered for decades round a sermon. Israel camped around the presence (approving gasps from the audience). And we've known there are going to be some dramatic shifts in how we do life, how we do church. The presence of God is the greatest gift we have and to shut everything else down because of that is absolutely worth it to me....it's happening tonight as the church is camping around the presence..... (whoops and shouts of joy). ...finally the main thing has become the main thing...
That Johnson is regarded by his lieutenants as a guru and authority figure is evidenced when Silk says of Johnson's words "Yoda speaks!". Notice how Johnson's words compare exposition of the Word unfavourably to the "presence", a "presence" which to him is the "main thing". For the sake of what Johnson is claiming to be a kind of theophany everything else, in his view, must be closed down; especially, no doubt, a questioning spirit and the exposition of the Word.
God, as we should know, is omnipresent although in spite of our finitude we may feel and/or see unusual tokens of his presence. But God is bigger than any experiences and/or revelations finite beings can have. Such experiences are just one thing and never can be the main thing. But I suppose it does become the main thing if you want to close down everything else and use the putative "main thing" to manipulate people. I have no a priori reason to reject out of hand the account of people who claim to have had an epiphany they cannot articulate or explain easily: In the historical church there has always been a tension between Word-laden and Wordless encounters with the divine. But Bethel weighs in to exacerbate the fault line between the analytical & intuitive and comes out in favour of a shut up! and shut down! fideism.
The creator of the video is a bit of a hard cop; I myself like to give Christians the benefit of the doubt knowing that confirmation bias and gullibility can fully account for this kind of stuff: But if Bethel persists in maintaining its spiritually intimidating stance toward all who might at first cautiously balk at what they are claiming, hard cops are what Bethel has brought upon itself.
God, as we should know, is omnipresent although in spite of our finitude we may feel and/or see unusual tokens of his presence. But God is bigger than any experiences and/or revelations finite beings can have. Such experiences are just one thing and never can be the main thing. But I suppose it does become the main thing if you want to close down everything else and use the putative "main thing" to manipulate people. I have no a priori reason to reject out of hand the account of people who claim to have had an epiphany they cannot articulate or explain easily: In the historical church there has always been a tension between Word-laden and Wordless encounters with the divine. But Bethel weighs in to exacerbate the fault line between the analytical & intuitive and comes out in favour of a shut up! and shut down! fideism.
The creator of the video is a bit of a hard cop; I myself like to give Christians the benefit of the doubt knowing that confirmation bias and gullibility can fully account for this kind of stuff: But if Bethel persists in maintaining its spiritually intimidating stance toward all who might at first cautiously balk at what they are claiming, hard cops are what Bethel has brought upon itself.
